Barnstable schools get early jump on bad behavior

With mental health issues on the rise among children, schools are developing strategies to help preschoolers cope and are screening for problem behaviors as early as kindergarten.

By CYNTHIA McCORMICK

capecodtimes.com

By CYNTHIA McCORMICK

Posted Jan. 21, 2014 at 2:00 AM

By CYNTHIA McCORMICK

Posted Jan. 21, 2014 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

With mental health issues on the rise among children, schools are developing strategies to help preschoolers cope and are screening for problem behaviors as early as kindergarten.

Last month, for the first time, teachers and parents of more than 300 Barnstable kindergartners filled out a questionnaire designed to help them assess the youngsters' mental health.

The tool will be used to help design classroom and other interventions, Barnstable Schools Director of Student Services Gina Hurley said.

"More and more students are struggling with mental health issues," Hurley said. "What we're talking about is kids who are having difficulty coping."

The teacher questionnaire asked 27 questions, such as if the child "never," "sometimes," "often" or "almost always" pays attention, has headaches, disrupts other children's activities or has good study habits.

The goal is not to diagnose students but to develop plans to help them manage their anxiety, sadness and frustration, Hurley said.

If enough students in a classroom are feeling stressed out, the teacher might incorporate a lesson on handling anxiety into the regular lesson plan, Hurley said.

In some cases school counselors might want to pull students out of class for a small group session, but that would happen only with parental permission, Hurley said.

She said teachers increasingly report seeing their small charges struggle with social issues such as making friends, sharing and coping with not getting their way.

"Breaking down crying," she said. "The stress. The anxiety. The worry."

Preschool teachers also are seeing an increase in troubled youngsters, Mal Hughes, director of Head Start for Cape Cod Child Development said.

Among the 360 youngsters who participate in the organization's Head Start programs is "a group of kids who face a lot of challenges," Hughes said.

"It's children who are unable to regulate themselves in a group setting," Hughes said.

They may attempt to run away, throw chairs or crayons and hit other students, she said.

Cape Cod Child Development is in the process of hiring a part-time case manager to help the children — and their teachers, Hughes said.

Funded by a $23,294 grant from Cape Cod Healthcare, the case manager will work with children on behavioral challenges and link parents with services provided by such organizations as the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children, Hughes said.

"The services come from different agencies," Hughes said. "We're trying to make the process easier."

In a May report, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted the skyrocketing increase in children's mental disorders.

The study revealed that up to 20 percent of American children ages 3 to 17 had issues with handling their emotions, learning or behaving.

Among other things, the study reported a rise in autism spectrum disorders and noted cigarette dependence and behavioral issues were more common among boys while girls had a higher prevalence of depression and alcohol abuse.

The reasons for the increase are unclear, although people have pointed variously to a lack of unstructured playtime outdoors, vitamin deficiencies, toxic exposures, school testing and too much TV watching or video game use — as well as greater awareness of mental health issues.

Hughes is convinced that economic stress from the Great Recession plays a major role in disrupting families and damaging children's mental health.

Parents "are working one, two, three jobs, working a job and being in school," Hughes said. "They're managing lots of things, and it's challenging for them."

Too many parents are forced to choose between paying the electric bill and putting food on the table, Hughes said.

The stress undermines the peace and harmony of a home that encourages children to thrive, Hughes said. She said parents increasingly are reporting their own problems with depression, substance abuse and domestic abuse.

But the issues cut across all economic levels.

More and more parents are calling NAMI of Cape Cod and the Islands, a chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness, with concerns about their children's mental well-being, Ron Holmes, executive director of the local chapter, said.

Three years ago on a national level the organization rolled out an education program for the parents of children under 18 called the Basics Education Program, Holmes said.

This fall the local chapter held its first Basics course, on Nantucket. There are plans to offer it in March on Martha's Vineyard and sometime in the near future in Falmouth and for Barnstable elementary school parents, Holmes said.

Hurley said she expects to have the results of the kindergarten mental health questionnaire available for school counselors by the end of the month.

The Barnstable schools put school counselors in all five elementary schools this academic year, Hurley said.